WHO IS PALM (...and, why are they saying such terrible things about him)???

Being a Palm Addict is no easy thing. We squabble with aficionados of Symbian and WinMobile (although in that case, as Pogo famously said: ‘We has met the enemy…and he is us!”). We squabble amongst ourselves, on the various benefits and shortfalls of PDAs, Treos, WiFi, etc. We squabble amongst blogs, as to which one truly reflects the ‘pure faith’ of Palm devotees.

Most of all, we snipe, carp, flame, howl and generally shake a virtual fist at Palm. That invites the question: “WHO IS PALM?”

Is Palm the hardware manufacturer of today’s LifeDrive and Treo? Is it the developer of the Palm OS? Many people who post to forums all over the web (including our own) still labor under the impression that these two pieces are interchangeable, interconnected, part & parcel of the same concern. That, I believe, is where the confusion lies…and, no wonder. If you look at the chart above, you will see a quick history of Palm, its spin-offs, sell-offs and the fractured landscape that has been created out of that which was once a splendid whole (click on the image for the full-size view).

RED LINES represent Palm being sold, split and/or spun off. This includes the tragic sale from US Robotics to 3Com, and the resulting flight of Palm’s 3 founders to launch Handspring. During the 3Com and independent Palm years, development of new products all but came to a standstill, and Palm lost its commanding edge on both the device and platform sides. The inept Palm management also decided that the hardware and OS sides of the company should work independently of each other; so, they renamed the OS side ‘palmsource’ and moved it to a separate campus.

BLUE LINES show the licensees of the Palm OS, including the enterprising, lamented SONY.

Unable to come up with a viable smartphone (the Tungsten W was a package no one wanted to buy), Palm purchased the cash-strapped Handspring; which, happened to have a viable smartphone platform (the Treo), and Palm’s 3 founders. Although this proves to be a smart decision, it is negated by the ill-informed spin-off of palmsource as an independent company. The new Palm/Handspring entity is renamed pa1mOne; and, under terms of the divestiture, both companies will be allowed to use the word ‘palm’ as part of their corporate name.

Within a year of the Handspring acquisition, Ed Colligan and other ‘old-time’ Palm managers are promoted to ever higher levels of control within pa1mOne; eventually leading to Ed being named President and CEO. He attempts to acquire palmSource, and reconstitute the ‘old’ Palm. Unfortunately, this strategy is thwarted by Japan’s ACCESS, who greatly outbid every palmsource suitor. They declare that they will be creating a new, Linux-based OS for mobile devices. In response, pa1mOne buys back sole rights to ‘palm’ from ACCESS/palmSource, and renames pa1mOne to its current Palm, Inc.

Confused yet? Just imagine how the employees’ accountants must feel, going through all those different w2’s each year (wanna guess how many IRS audits all those name changes caused?). Its no wonder that Wall Street finds it hard to get enthusiastic when a 10-year old enterprise has gone through so many permutations and fractures. For those who really want their heads to hurt, I suggest a very detailed timeline of all this nonsense that you can find over at Engaget.

For the sake of this story, let’s try to break it down, so you can focus your angst on the ‘right’ enterprise:

Palm, Inc.: Hardware manufacturer of Palm PDAs and Treo Smartphones. Licenses the Palm OS (v5.x) from ACCESS/palmSource, and WinMobile from Microsoft. They are also licensed to customize both Operating Systems for their devices, but have no control over development of new versions

ACCESS/palmsource: Owner of the Palm Operating System. They alone will decide what the ‘new’ Palm OS will look like; although early indications are that a Linux platform will run a Palm emulation layer, allowing existing Palm apps to run on it. What the UI will look like, or the performance will be like, no one knows

We were treated to an unprecedented series of devices that had a singular vision melding hardware & OS into a Zen-sational user experience. Now there are two unrelated companies each owning some part of that old equation. All the king’s horses, rants and flames ain’t gonna put this omelet back in its shell. The world has moved on, and the ‘historic’ Palm is no more.

That's it...I'm off the bloody soapbox!
PJA